


Which of Us is the Third Wheel

by TeamHPForever



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: First Kiss, M/M, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-05
Updated: 2015-03-05
Packaged: 2018-03-16 09:45:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3483620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeamHPForever/pseuds/TeamHPForever
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bucky drags Steve along on his dates. It takes Steve a while to figure out why.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Which of Us is the Third Wheel

**Author's Note:**

> My girlfriend requested a fic based off "Me, You, and Steve" by Garfunkel and Oates.

It takes Steve a while to figure it out. It has to be the casual way that Bucky manipulates him into coming along on his dates. Sometimes the girl will bring along a date for Steve—a friend, a sister—but it’s rare for that girl to look at Steve for more than a second and then actually talk to him.

“I thought you said he was tall,” Steve overhears one of them whisper to her friend.

“That’s what Bucky told me,” she whispers back.

It takes Steve even longer to realize that the girl hadn’t heard wrong or Bucky hadn’t lied…that was genuinely the way Bucky saw him.

Which is why, when Bucky bursts into their tiny apartment and announces that he’s found two girls that want to go dancing, Steve drags himself off the couch. “You know I can’t dance, Buck,” he says, already slipping into a pair of pants that haven’t been ripped in a fight yet.

“Nonsense.” Bucky’s grinning, almost bouncing with excitement. “I taught you myself.”

Steve looks away, his cheeks reddening, and focuses on the laces of his shoes. “When are we meeting them?”

“Ten minutes.”

“ _Bucky_.”

“Yeah, sorry for the lack of warning.” He doesn’t look sorry at all and Steve doesn’t have it in him to be angry.

Steve is ready in ten minutes anyway and it isn’t long before they find themselves on the streets. When they arrive, the two girls are already waiting outside. The first—a leggy girl with dark brown hair tied back in a bow—is definitely Bucky’s type. The other must be for Steve. She looks sweet, with sandy blonde hair and a shy smile.

“Steve, this is Marjorie and Grace. Girls, this is Steve Rogers.”

Majorie looks Steve up and done with a judging expression that he’s more than used to. Grace, on the other hand, gives him a genuine smile and a murmured, “Hello.”

“Shall we?” Marjorie asks, glancing over her shoulder at the door.

“Yes.” Bucky grins and loops their arms together. Grace doesn’t move to do the same with Steve, so he holds open the door for her and follows her inside.

Bucky and Marjorie disappear into the crowd almost immediately. Grace turns to Steve with a shrug. “Do you want to dance?”

Steve swallows hard at the thought of her smiling face turning into a scowl when he inevitably steps on her feet. “Let’s get a drink first.”

“All right.”

Steve is almost surprised how easy it is to talk to her. Growing up in Brooklyn. The impending war. Stark’s inventions. He almost forgets that Bucky is there—almost—until, speak of the devil, he emerges from the crowd and yanks Steve in.

Grace’s hand is light and soft inside of his own, her other resting on his shoulder. Steve tries not to stare down at his feet as he focuses on leading.

“This isn’t so bad, is it?” Grace asks, moving closer to avoid a couple whirling past them. Steve glances over her shoulder to where Bucky is dancing with Marjorie. Bucky catches his eye and gives him a thumb’s up. Steve looks away, his stomach churning for reasons he doesn’t want to consider.

“No,” Steve says finally, turning his eyes back to Grace. “It’s great.”

Inevitably, the night comes to an end. Steve half-expects Bucky to send him on his way and tell him not to wait up. Instead they both say good night to the girls and head out together.

“You looked sweet on her, Stevie,” Bucky says once they’ve disappeared into the darkened streets. “Did you have a good time?”

“Yeah, Buck.” They lapse easily into silence and Steve’s mind turns to confusing thoughts. For all his dates and bragging, Steve has never seen Bucky bring anyone back to his own apartment in all the time that Steve has lived there. And he’s clearly not going back to their places, because here he is walking home with Steve.

He glances at Bucky and pushes the thought away. “Are you going to see her again?”

Bucky shrugs. “We’ll see.”

Steve leaves it at that.

It’s a few more days before Bucky goes out on another date, and convinces Steve to go along with him. The movie is good, but Steve can’t help but wonder what he’s doing there. The theater is filled with couples and none of _them_ have brought friends along. Kind of defeats the purpose of a date.

He wonders further when Bucky laughs at some joke that Steve missed and smacks him lightly on the shoulder instead of turning in to his date.

Steve stands alone in the dark outside the theater, watching Bucky and the girl talk. She leans in close, brushing her fingers over his collar, but he doesn’t even seem to notice. She says something else and Bucky shakes his head with a soft smile. The girl jerks away and her mouth moves. She waits a second but must not get the response she’s looking for because she storms away into the crowd.

Bucky pushes a hand through his hair as he heads over to Steve. They don’t say anything as they start home.

“What was wrong with her?” Steve asks, once their block is in sight.

Bucky jerks like he’s been lost in thought. “Nothing wrong with her.”

“Then why aren’t you—” Steve points a thumb back over his shoulder, hesitating. “Seeing her again? Or with her right now?”

“Then who would protect you from getting jumped on the way home?” Bucky’s voice is laughing, but his eyes are serious. Steve shuffles his feet, trying not to think about all the times just that has happened in the last year. “She just wasn’t right for me, Stevie.”

Steve feels another question on the tip of his tongue, but he’s not quite sure what it is. So he keeps it to himself and follows Bucky up the stairs to their apartment.

Two weeks pass after that. Steve throws himself into extra shifts at the restaurant. If Bucky goes out on any more dates, Steve misses them.

“Do you have a shift tomorrow?” Bucky asks when Steve comes home Friday night and falls head-first into the couch. His lungs feel like they’re crawling and he just wants to sleep for a week.

Steve turns his face out of the cushions. “Just one. Morning.”

“Awesome.” Bucky walks into his sight-line, face beaming. “You should meet me at Central Park after.”

“Buck.” Steve groans, too tired to offer much more of a protest.

“Come on, Stevie. It’s going to be fun. I’ll pack a picnic, bring a couple girls.” Bucky kneels down next to the couch and Steve can already feel his resolve melting away. Not for the picnic or the girls, but for Bucky.

“Fine. But don’t forget, no peanut butter.”

Bucky snorts as he stands back up. “I would never forget.”

Steve’s halfway home by the time he remembers that he agreed to meet Bucky. He hesitates, considering for only a moment the possibility of just going home, before turning around. It was never a real choice.

Bucky’s sitting on a park bench, a picnic basket between his legs. He’s also alone. Bucky looks up on Steve’s approach, his face breaking out into a smile. “I was starting to think you weren’t coming,” Bucky says.

“Takes time to walk here, Buck.” Steve glances around, but they’re definitely alone.

“They didn’t show,” Bucky says before he can ask. “But hey, more sandwiches for us.” He picks up the basket and sets it between them. Steve shrugs and digs through for a sandwich. There’s a tuna on rye right on top. His favorite. He doesn’t say a word as he unwraps it and takes a bite.

“How was your shift?” Bucky asks, biting into his own sandwich.

Steve launches into a story about a couple and their two children who attempted to start a food fight in the middle of the restaurant, Bucky shaking his head right along with him. By the time he’s finished, both of their sandwiches are gone.

“They sound like a piece of work,” Bucky says when Steve is done.

Steve shrugs, feeling the weight of the day on his shoulders. Still, he can’t bring himself to wish that he was already home, probably stretched out on the couch with his sketchpad.

“You’ve got something—” Bucky waves a hand at Steve’s mouth, his eyes hovering there for a few moments more than usual. “Here, let me get it.” He reaches across, wiping away a bit of mayo with his thumb.

Steve freezes, breath stuck in his throat. “Buck.”

“Yeah?” Bucky’s still staring at his mouth.

Steve doesn’t think, just feels the words slipping out. “There were never any girls, were there?”

Bucky laughs but the sound is lacking in any real humor. “Of course there were. They didn’t show.”

“James.”

All the vibrato goes right out of Bucky. He slumps back a bit, his eyes slipping from Steve’s face to the picnic basket. “No, there weren’t.”

Steve stares at him, waiting for something more. Bucky’s eyes come up to meet his for the barest second before flickering away again. It’s just enough time for Steve to catch sight of the sheer confusion and fear. It’s not an expression he can remember seeing before.

“Let’s go home,” Bucky says abruptly, already shoving things back into the picnic basket.

Steve jumps, feeling a bit like he just got slapped. “Okay.”

The walk back is silent, tense. Steve feels desperate to think of something to say to make it go away but it would help if he actually knew where it all was coming from. Once they’re home, Bucky paces the living room floor as Steve closes the door.

“What’s going on, Buck?” Steve asks, leaning back against it. He feels full of adrenaline and dead on his feet all at once.

Bucky freezes, staring at him with a strange expression on his face. His jaw works like he has something to say but his mouth stays closed. Instead, he crosses the room in two easy strides and pushes Steve back against the door. His mouth brushes against Steve’s, light and soft. Then he pulls back, just enough that Steve can still feel the softness of his breath against his face.

“Oh,” Steve whispers. He grabs Bucky by the collar and pulls him down into another kiss, hard and desperate. It’s everything Steve wanted and didn’t know he could have. Bucky seems to realize that he isn’t about to get punched for his troubles and his hands come up, resting lightly on Steve’s hips. His tongue reaches out and traces Steve’s bottom lip.

Steve lets out a whine and feels the vibration of Bucky’s laughter against his lips. Bucky pulls away first, leaning his forehead against Steve. For a few moments they don’t speak, just stand there trembling and sharing each other’s air.

“So all those girls?” Steve asks, because he has to.

Bucky smiles, pulling away slightly to kiss the tip of Steve’s nose. “They were all fine. But they weren’t you.”

“Where do we go from here?”

Bucky laughs, one hand sliding up to Steve’s chest, resting against the rapid beating of his heart. “The same place we’ve always been, Stevie. Only maybe with a little less clothing in bed.”

Steve stands on his toes, stretching up to place his lips over Bucky’s, nipping hard on his bottom lip. “Just promise me no more dates.”

“There will be dates,” Bucky says seriously and Steve’s fingers clench up on his shirt. “It’ll be just you and me from now on.”

“Perfect.” Steve leans up for another kiss, pushing on Bucky’s chest to guide him away from the door and in the direction of the couch.


End file.
